More on the new ATO website and Portal

"It astounds me that not a week goes past where there are not multiple comments on the ATO’s Portal and website.

Makes me wonder if one of the Big 4 banks ran their IT the same way, how long would they stay in business (and look at how many people access their systems on a daily basis).

The monopoly of the ATO gives rise to the constant 'Oops, sorry, we seem to have some issues' as a standard catchphrase.

Perhaps we need to privatise taxation and open it up to competition!! (Only joking.)"

MEMBER 231 writes:

"Today I have wasted over 1½ hours attempting to download the current ITWV software and form from the ATO website, does not work, cannot get the software at all, cannot lodge for my client.

The staff member at Penrith had no idea how to fix matters and did not know what to do.

This is just a very bad joke. We cannot do our work, get abused and penalised by the ATO and yet they do nothing at all.

Our clients blame us for not doing our work and the real problem is the ATO and their silly new computer website and lack of help.

The ATO says that it has formed a consultative committee on the website? Really! This just delays the obvious fixes, and in reality means that nothing will be done for (say) 3 months. By then everyone is resigned to the situation, complaints drop and the ATO wins. The ATO thinks - consultation WORKS. (Bah! Humbug!)."

MEMBER 232 writes (again):

"At the risk of sounding like an old fashioned ‘broken record’, it would be useful if the ATO could provide details of what it changes when a webpage is modified. For example, the 'Professional footballers - general tax guide' was modified a couple of days ago but there are no details as to what was changed - are we seriously expected to have to open up every link to try and work out what (if anything) has changed?"

"The statement by the ATO that 'Much of the content on the website has remained unchanged', I suggest, is not that confidence inspiring. It does not address what has been removed from the website, how much information etc. Also the question of whether, if not removed, then is it linked? Also, quite disconcerting if they have maintained the old website internally for themselves but leave us with the new site. Is the ATO purposely reducing the material on the website to advantage their administration by not allowing us information??"